SE Alaska & the Yukon River 2016

[AJF]

Jay
The advice you got sounds good. I've never been lucky enough to get ideal conditions rounding Cape Ommaney coming from Port Alexander. So it has always been a bit of a with knuckle ride. But I thoroughly love that coastline heading up to Sitka, and have always had lots of time to do it. So I could wait out the nasty stuff when it shows up.

[Jeff and Julie]

We are supposed to have several days of good weather this week. Sounds like a great time to be out on a boat! Wish I wasn't power washing the house
Julie

[Hunkydory]

Yes, Julie beautiful weather. It has been snowing back home in Wyoming, while here in Port Alexander totally blue sky & warm enough to not use the heater at all. If it stays as forecast we'll be leaving here tomorrow go around Cape Ommaney & have several days to check some of the outside bays between here & Sitka. Hard to believe we can do this in the first half of May in a 22 foot boat.

[Hunkydory]

[Hunkydory]

We made an attempt to check out Cape Ommaney this morning for rounding, but to much wind, so will try again tomarrow. Weather reports say doable, but so far actual conditions aren't at least for us.

[doc]

Hey Jay. Looks like you are parked just down the dock from the MV Seeker, a 50' aluminum landing craft, owned by my good friend Billy Akin aka Coastal Transport, who is here at the house with me now. He's headed to the airport tonight to fly back to Sitka. He might head out early morning but back soon. Go down and say hi. April, his first mate is likely aboard right now and fully awake but I figure you are likely asleep already. They are nice folks and will be happy to see you, unless of course you tell them that you know me. I digress. Hope all is well and I assume your trip around the outside went well.

[Hunkydory]

May 13. Wow! Friday the 13th & coming around Cape Ommaney. Good thing we're not to superstitious. Following yesterday's attempt & the conflicting weather reports off NOAA marine & VHF marine radio we were somewhat apprehensive even though the one did look good for once we made it to the west side of Baranof Island. The wind was about 15 knots from the east & things were rough right on the east tip, but when rounded, where normally at the Eagle Rock rips it can be very bad, instead it was good. No other boats out there today not even fishing trollers. This makes twice, we've now made the run from Port Alexander around Cape Ommaney & up the open Gulf of Alaska waters to Sitka in our little C-Dory 22 foot boat & this time our Honda Motors went over the 2000 hour mark on the way & we are now very near the 10,000 mile mark of cruising the Alaska waters at 9928 miles. It was a totally blue sky day & the snow capped peaks of Baranof Island really stood out. On the way we stopped & checked out the Ten Fathom Bight anchorage at the entrance to Redfish Bay & Still Harbor on the south entrance to Whale Bay. No wildlife in either place, but several whales with two doing allot of breaching on the outside. The view with the beautiful weather is very good, but in no way compares to the Gulf side of Chichagof & Yacobi Islands or the east side of Baranof Island in the same blue sky conditions.

On this cruise so far three different commercial fisherman have told us about the outstanding bear watching & other wildlife to be seen in Hoonah Sound, which is located at the head of Peril Strait, so instead of going directly to the outside wilderness area of Chichigof Island we will be making for Hoonah Sound first & then if time allows to the outside again. With fabulous weather forecast for at least another 4 days we will not be be staying In Sitka very long. We did a quick walk of the town late yesterday & had a delicious dinner out, which is very unusual for us. Now need to pick up a few food supplies, another shower & replace the bilge pump, which burnt out on the way up the coast yesterday. It got a workout from the east wind again the small swells causing lots of spray. As soon as this is done we will be heading back out with likely staying in Baby Bear Bay tonight.

Overall this trip so far has had the best weather of any cruise, since our 2004 run north to Alaska from Prince Rupert, BC! Canada. So the month of May can be wonderful here.

I wrote this, this morning, as I was way to tired last night.

Day 25, 87 miles & 921 total.

[Hunkydory]

Steve, we will stop & see April on the Seeker before we leave.

[doc]

Looks like Jay and Jolee are gunk holing around. Weather got a little crappy staring yesterday afternoon. Went from high seventies and mill pond to wind and whitecaps real fast yesterday.

[Hunkydory]

May 14. Topped off the water, took a last minute shower, untied from the dock at the harbor & headed north by noon in the 7th day in a row of blue sky & the temp in Sitka 74 degrees. It stayed smooth waters all the way to our anchorage here in Hoonah Sound tonight. There is a seal circling the boat this evening & a eagle making repeated tries on some water birds. I would call them ducks, but I'm sure friend Tom would figure out what they really are & inform me from where he's at way back in Marysville, Washington. We have to admit being disappointed this evening. We're in a wonderful location every bit as good as described by the commercial fishermen who recommended it, but the problem is a family of three generations on a commercial fishing boat with a couple runabouts are here bear hunting. Also on the way here, just as we entered Hoonah Sound, we spotted the bear hunting boat named Bear, whom we last saw in the outside water Chichagof Wilderness in 2012 in early May, bear hunting then too. So the bears are spooked & not hanging around to be seen. With a gale now forecast for here Monday night & coming in with Southwest winds, that this area has little to protect from, we are now thinking of making a run back to the outside Alaska Gulf waters of the Chichagof Wilderness tomarrow & find shelter in either Sister Lake or Falcom Arm of Khaz Bay. It will take us over 80 miles to reach Sister Lake, which is only 6.5 miles east of Patterson Bay here in Hoonah Sound in a straight line.

Day 26, 55 miles & 976 total.

May 15, we're back in & anchored at the head of Falcon Arm, Khaz Bay, which is in the Chichagof-Yacobi Island wilderness area on the Gulf of Alaska side of Chichigof Island. With the abundance of bear hunters & few bears (we saw one) & as reported yesterday, bad weather on the way, we decided to head back to the outside waters at 4AM, but 1st, made a run up to the head of Patterson Bay in Hoonah Sound. It was calm water back out through Peril Strait & Surges Narrows, but once we left Salisbury Sound, the race was on to beat the wall of fog, coming up with the weather change from the south. We lost the race just three miles short of Phiele Passage & had to enter it in a pee soup fog & the 15 to 20 knots of wind that came with its front. Even with routes on good charts it can be somewhat tricky making your way into & through a intricate passage from the open ocean in such conditions & we were wishing, we had left Hoonah sound, either a bit more early or had run less at displacement speed on the way. The VHF radio weather forecast had predicted a change in wind direction from east to southwest in the afternoon, but said nothing about fog. The wind change, came before 9AM & the fog with it. At least we came back out of the fog again on the east side of Phiele Passage & alls well that ends well, with us now settled down for the night, where we were last & had such a good time with Brent & Dixie about the 1st of July, 2015. The fog & touch of light rain tonight has ended our blue sky & warm weather streak at 8 days. All that sunshine & warmth with it wasn't expected, but wonderful, while it lasted.

On the water day 27, 65 miles & 1041 total.

May 16. We've been on the boat now for a month having left home on April 16th. For those considering one of those tiny 100 sq ft houses you might want to try out a CD 22 boat like we're on first, with an inside cabin floor square footage of 12 sq ft. If you could do this for several months then a 100 sq ft house would seem comparably huge. In the past we have stayed on this boat for up to three months straight & our 1100 sq ft home always does seems really big to be back in.

We slept well last night with rain pattering off the roof & it was still coming down this morning when we pulled anchor to check out Ford Arm of Khaz bay & then head to Sister Lake for a very secure anchorage for tonight's forecast gale. We weathered out our first big gale out here during our first year into this extremely remote setting in the Chichagof wilderness in 2007 & our last time in this anchorage was last year when we were cruising with Brent & Dixie. We haven't seen a bear in Ford Arm or here in Sister Lake & were really wondering why, until we saw the bear hunters show up. It's getting hard to find an area that they aren't thick in & I'm thinking after the bear hunting season, such as early June would be a better time to be here. In 2007 we were here during the first week of June & saw many bears & most stayed around for some close viewing. The other time there were few bears to be seen was the only other time we were here early like this year & that was in 2012 when later in June we saw the most bears of any trip. Bears or no bears we're still having a great trip & this area, especially Sister Lake will always be a favorite of ours.

We anchored for a few hours earlier in the day at the head of the SE arm of Sister lake with the unique pointed peak just above us, that we had last seen the other side of, 105 miles back at the head of Patterson Bay in Hoonah Sound. Those areas with the peak in between are only 6 miles apart in a straight line.

On the water day 28, 40 miles today & 1081 total

May 17. We awoke with quite a surprise when we looked out from our anchorage near the far end of Sister Lake to see a humpback whale. It was either one heck of a challenge for it find its way in through all the intricate passages from the open gulf of Alaska or it was a very lost whale. Previous to seeing this whale here in Sister Lake, we can't remember seeing any but grey whales in this whole outside Chichagof Island wilderness area in all our travels here, though Cross Sound, Lisianski Strait & Inlet & Icy Strait has many of them.

With the rain & wind coming in strong spurts we made it today out of Sister Lake & over to the ruins of the old Chichagof gold mine. We anchored for the afternoon in a large tidal lagoon at the very head of the inlet & between the heavy rains were entertained by watching the many birds, deer, a mink, sea otters, river otters & a beaver. Tonight the water is glass smooth calm & at least for the moment no rain.

In between wildlife watching we re fueled the main gas tanks from our spare containers & found we have used 35 gal in the 174 miles since fueling in Sitka, so have averaged 5 mpg in this stretch of travel so far & have 51 gal remaining aboard. Carrying extra fuel in containers & refueling is a pain, but with out doing it many of these remote places we enjoy seeing would not be possible, so well worth doing for us. When topped off we now carry 86 gal of gas for the boat & three gal for the generator & dingy motors plus 6 gal of diesel for the Wallas heater.

On the water day 29, 14 miles & 1095 total.

May 18. After three days of being in the Chichagof Island Wilderness, without seeing a single bear, we are now anchored for the night in Goulding Harbor with two large ones on the shore, by us. This & seeing three adult bears in Black Bay has made the day, very good for bear watching. The usual beauty of this area & it's wildlife are in abundance here tonight. A rugged snow capped mountain on the sky line, waterfall to the side, a river at the head, sea otters in the water around us, along with many birds, & bears on shore & all this, many miles from any other humans, makes it a wonderland for us.

On the way here we looked over the area, I helped out two couples from a determined bear in 2007. It was fun looking over the area & seeing just how remarkably close to the bear, I was, when it jumped into the water beside me. It was feet not tens of feet & a experience still vivid in my memory. Following looking this island area over, we explored Dry Pass at a high tide right out to the edge of the 12 foot sea breakers at its ocean side entrance. The charts for this area have no relationship to actual, so even though we have been through it twice before, we can't trust the past tracks & wanted a good track to follow at least for the inner-side, shallow water area. Tomarrow we will go back out at low tide & view the outer channel for best passage there. On our last time through this pass in 2012 we had a close call here & do not want a repeat. For the high tide exploring today, I used a satellite photo stored in the IPad, which is similar to what we plan on doing for some parts of the Yukon River in June. The satellite photos are better for navigation here, then the electronic charts, due to the electronic charts having misplaced rocks & islands, along with us not placed, where we actually are on them. These kind of preparations, we find challenging & enjoyable, while making the actual passage less dangerous.

The sun has come back out here this evening & the wind calmed also, so we are having a most pleasant end to the day. The two bears have turned out to be a Moma & a cub she's in the process of running off. True tough love. You gotta make it on your own baby. Also now very close, two deer have came out of the brush & layed down very close to our anchorage to enjoy the evening sun too.

On the water day 30, 34 miles today & 1129 total

May 19. Another beautiful warm sunny day. We took advantage of the good visibility to check out dry pass on the low tide by using the dingy to get close as possible then I walked out & climbed a bluff overlooking the entry way. The entry is full of kelp & not safe for passage except in very calm conditions & tomorrows 6 foot seas don't qualify, so we will be doing Imperial Passage around Hill Island to Mirror Harbor instead of the short cut through Dry Pass. We were hoping to avoid going directly into the Northwest winds, but find it more favorable then the alternative.

We also used the dingy to go to shore for a short walk & Fire & then explored the shallow water head of Goulding Harbor & even made it a ways up the beautiful river. We saw only one bear, but many deer & the other wildlife assortment common to these inner bays.

On the water day 31, 12 miles & 1141 total

May 20. We set the alarm for 4am & then shortly after, were on our way for Imperial Passage, which takes us back out into the open Gulf of Alaska waters to round Hill Island for Mirror Harbor & the White Sulfer Hot Springs near it. We were hoping to beat the building morning breeze & perhaps good, we did. The 6 foot swells were extremely close set & moving very fast, so we could only make less than 4 mph into them without the resounding crash from falling from off their back side, which we still did several times even with the very reduced speed. As we rounded Hill Island, I was very surprised at how well the little Dory handled them on the beam. I took the speed up to 12 mph & she road them well with only minor discomfort to us. Then as we turned again & had them on the stern & I held the same engine rpm, the ride turned very comfortable with the waves moving under us at half again over our speed. It would have been fun to try to surf them, but with the waves crashing on rocks just off to starboard, I figured it wasn't the right place for a joy ride.

As we made entry to outer Mirror Harbor, we found it choked with kelp, other then a path, just the width of our boat, then as we made the very narrow dogleg into the East Arm, we found it completely kelp covered & the & zero foot low tide, making the entrance even narrower. I found the rock on the starboard side comes out further then I thought, so had to do a quick reverse & boat place adjustment nearer the port side rock. The good thing, I learned through this process is as I've heard others mention, but I hadn't tried, was a quick reverse of the props does shed the kelp & allows for gaining back forward momentum from the clogged props very quickly. I had to to it a couple times during this entry with wonderfully quick results. If I would have known this, early this morning, we would have made our way through Dry Pass, instead of bucking the waves, going out Imperial Passage. Our next learning experience of the day, came as we made our way back out the east arm & into the west one. In the very middle of the passage between the two above water rocks that mark it, we clipped one of the motor skegs on a rock, who's closest point to the surface was just one foot below the zero tide. This is a area, I've been over many times through the years in the C-Dory & Mokai & hadn't noticed it before, but this time it was at a very low tide. It's a good thing, we were going very slow, as it did make a noticeable noise with fortunately no damage. Just one of the many things, I love about boating in SE Alaska is no matter the distance here one has put under the boat, new challenges will be met & more lessons learned with resting on laurels not a option.

Following a nap to boost us back up from our early morning start, we got the dingy back off, the motor on & headed for the trailhead to White Sulfer Hot Springs. With the fog burned off & the sun shining again, it was another fun walk through the rain forest to the Hot Springs with us keeping a sharp look out after seeing much more bear sign then ever before on this trail. Midway to the springs in the middle of the trail was the remains of a deer most likely killed by a bear & for sure ate by one or more of them, signified by the remains of deer skin in the bear crap, scattered about. Didn't see any bears, but I was glad to have in my hands the shotgun & Jo-Lee's bear spray. We had our usual wonderful hot water soak in an unbeatably beautiful setting before making the return trail trip back to the dingy & boat. From the attendance log at the cabin, we are only the 2nd ones here this year with those here before us, only two days ago, then at the trailhead, we met an incoming couple on a boat from Gustavus who had just caught a king salmon before arriving here. Lucky for us, it was to much for them to keep without ice, so they gifted us half & it made for dinner same day caught, king salmon. Delicious as it was, maybe not quite as good as Brent's caught & Dixie's cooked, fresh coho, we ate aboard their Discovery boat, last year on Chatham Strait.

On the water day 32, 18 miles today & 1159 total.k

May 21. Our sojourn up the Gulf of Alaska side of Baranof & Chichagof Islands has now ended for this year following a good sea run from Mirror Harbor & quick stops at PorkyPine Bay & Shilo cove & on into the Lisianski Strait & Inlet to one of our more favorite small towns, Pelican where we are presently tied to the dock at its Marina.

It should be a interesting stop here for the next few days with filming here of another Bushman Alaska episode, which is supposed to start this afternoon or tomarrow.

On the water day 33, 32 miles today & 1191 total.

[thataway]

What a great write up! Wish we were there! One trick we have done with several of the dry or shoal passes, was both to explore with the dinghy--then have Marie go ahead with the dinghy, and I was less than 50 feet behind her, (in the Cal 46, draft 6 feet). Not sure if you are going to put any of the information in Active Captain--or keep it as a "C Dory secret"!

Take care--love following the track on Delorme--and seeing your last years track also!

[Hunkydory]

Bob, thanks for the compliment on this write up & we wish you were here also.

On the subject of charts not correct, I also have found the information from the Hemmingway-Douglas cruise book on their description of the inner route part of Dry Pass is also not the best route. Maybe after this trip I'll try to work something up, but my advise for anyone now thinking about doing it, first compare the actual close up satellite image from Bing maps with a Garmin or other charts & at least the different charts are wrong alike. Bing images here are better than Google. It becomes obvious real quick the two don't match up & then when you're in the boat & in among it all, watching for rocks & comparing images & where the electronic charts place you, it can really get confusing. I've sorted it out in my own mind, but not so sure I could for someone else.

Jay

[Hunkydory]

May 22. The Brown family's trawler of the Discovery Channel's, Bushmen Alaska is tied up across from us here in Pelican & today they were filming on the dock & about the town. It appears to me to be even a worse farce, then I already suspected. The family & crew all sleep & eat in the local lodges, while here & I think reality is not really a factor, which has much in common with their boat's name being "Integrity", but people seem to love this stuff, so it's a #1 show for the Discovery Channel. I guess parts of it might be worth watching for the video viewing of this area. With all this going on in town we decided to make a run up to the head of Lisianski Inlet to the area where on my 59th Birthday in 2007, we saw so many bears & other wildlife before making our first trip to the Chichagof Wilderness on the open water Gulf of Alaska. That day we saw many bears at the Inlet head, but in 2010, no bears, so was very pleased to be fully entertained by 8 up there today, including a mother with three cubs that were really full of it. Three Cubs & a playful mom can put on quite a show with their standing, tumbling & chasing each other around. That's the most bears we've seen in one setting this trip & only 10 miles up the channel from Pelican. We anchored the boat in the shallow tidal flat & watched the bears & many other wildlife do their thing for three hours, before making our way back to Pelican. The only major change in the wildlife here in the last 9 years has been the huge increase in sea otters. We considered spending the night there, but the stiff up channel breeze would have made for a very uncomfortable night.

On the water day 34, 21 miles & 1212 total

[Casey]

I chanced upon "The Alaskan Bush People" just before we departed on our current trip. I must admit.it was kind of interesting - but in a weird sort of way. I'm being rather charitable. My impression. Is that it might be more aptly named "The Squirrel Family."

Aside from the rather faked program, I find it interesting that this "reality" type of program is finding such a large audience in today's America. The sociologist in me wants to think about this phenomenon a bit more.

If you want to read more about the family, check-out:
http://starcasm.net/archives/320928

Best,
Casey&Mary
...truck camping our way North ... currently in Asheville, NC

[colbysmith]

Throwing politics in the mess, your comments seem to fit perfectly with a certain presidential candidate doing so well... Guess reality TV is where it's at. Damn the integrity anymore... Flakey and fakey seem to be confused as reality. Colby